Game Mechanics
After several live tests, Cresco and I decided to modify game mechanics. Moving from a 6 second tactical round to a 10 second tactical round and from the Imperial measuring system to the Metric measuring system. These changes and more listed below, simplify the game. -Maraglade Scale Each block on the playing map is considered 1 cubic meter. Combat Hustle A combat hustle is considered 25 meter blocks (for a medium creature) unless otherwise stated. Time and Movement Tactical Time is something any Pathfinder player will be familiar with. In our game it is built on the 10-second round, and is what we use to measure the passage of time in combat, or in other severely time-critical situations. Local Time is for exploration, such as when the players are delving into a dungeon. The ten second round would be far too short for this, and slow down gameplay to a ridiculous degree, so for Local Time, we will use the 10 minute turn, which can also be divided into'' 1 minute fragments''. Overland Time can be measured in days. If the party is simply traveling from point A to point B across a great distance, breaking things down into a unit smaller than a day would be tedious. Lastly, the Hour can be useful as a unit of measure for both Local, and Overland Time, when the situation warrants it. With our basic units of measure established, we need to know how they fit into one another, and how they eventually build into a year. This may seem somewhat silly at first, but consider: the Gregorian Calendar (the calendar most westerners use) is as confusing as the endless layers of the abyss. Largely due to the fact that it is an imprecise attempt to force a variety of natural phenomena into logical time-measurement boxes. By taking advantage of the fact that we’re playing a fantasy adventure game, we can easily redefine the way units of time fit into one another so that we can more easily keep track. For most of the smaller measurements, it’s simpler just to keep them consistent with the real world, to avoid the need to alter game rules. Casters need to rest 8 hours to recover from their strain (or recover spells if Vancian Magic is used) because 8 hours is 1/3 of the standard day, so changing the standard day would upset the balance of the game. However, larger units of measure can be toyed with at will. 10 Seconds = 1 Tactical Round 6 Tactical Rounds = 1 Minute 10 Minutes = 1 Local Turn 6 Local Turns = 1 Hour 24 Hours = 1 Day 7 Days = 1 Week 5 Weeks = 1 Month (35 Days) 10 Months = 1 Year (350 days or 60 weeks) Keeping a week at 7 days means that the few spells which have a 1 week cooldown are not unintentionally weakened or empowered. Making each month a consistent 5 weeks means you can avoid any confusion by having a single week bridging two months. And 10 months to a year keeps everything close enough to our reality that the players won’t feel detached. Everything is uniform, which will be helpful later on. Now that we’ve established our definitions, let's talk about movement. A character’s speed is already listed on their character sheet for use in combat. The speed which is listed on a character sheet is the distance, in meters, which a character can cover in a 10 second round. (The “move action” in combat is treated as a hustle, rather than a walk, which is why it takes less than the full round). This means that a character with a speed of 25 can move 25 meter squares in a round, 150 squares in a minute, and 1,500 square meters per 10 minute turn. This may seem ridiculous, but consider that the average human can walk a mile in 13 minutes. A mile is 5280 feet, which actually breaks down to a little over 406 feet per minute, so Pathfinder actually underestimates our movement speed. Therefore we change the movement speed to represent a better realistic setting. Medium Creature at a Hustle Speed of 25 = 1 meter squares = 75 Feet in 1 Tactical Round = 10 Seconds 150 squares = 450 Feet = 6 Tactical Rounds = 1 Minute 1,500 squares = 4,500 Feet = 10 Minutes = 1 Local Turn 9,000 meters (9 Km) = 27,000 Feet (~5 miles) = 6 Local Turns = 1 Hour 216 Km = 122 Miles = 24 Hours = 1 Day 1512 Km = 854 Miles = 7 Days = 1 Week 7,560 Km = 4,270 Miles = 5 Weeks = 1 Month (35 Days) 75,600 Km = 42,700 Miles = 10 Months = 1 Year (350 days) Medium Creature at a Walk Speed of 10 = 1 meter squares = 30 Feet in 1 Tactical Round = 10 Seconds 60 squares = 180 Feet = 6 Tactical Rounds = 1 Minute 600 squares = 1,800 Feet = 10 Minutes = 1 Local Turn 3,600 meters (3.6 Km) = 10,800 Feet (~2 miles) = 6 Local Turns = 1 Hour 86.5 Km = 48 Miles = 24 Hours = 1 Day 605.5 Km = 336 Miles = 7 Days = 1 Week 3,027.5 Km = 1,680 Miles = 5 Weeks = 1 Month (35 Days) 30,275 Km = 16,800 Miles = 10 Months = 1 Year (350 days) Category:General Game Rules